The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Don DelilloRead
When you try to unravel something you've written, you belittle it in a way. It was created as a mystery.
Interpretation
Overanalyzing your writing can diminish its artistic value and the mystery it holds.
This quote by Don Delillo highlights the tension between creation and analysis in the realm of writing. When a writer dissects their own work too thoroughly, they risk reducing the intrigue and emotional depth that originally made it captivating, as each piece of art is often layered with meaning that does not need to be fully understood to be appreciated.
In practice
This quote could be used during a writing workshop to encourage participants to embrace the mystery of their creative work.
The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
War is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. β¨He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way heβs carrying a gun. β¨This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
When I was a child, I used to paint intently. The older I become, and the closer death approaches, the brighter my life gets day by day.
Black writers, of whatever quality, who step outside the pale of what black writers are supposed to write about, or who black writers are supposed to be, are condemned to silences in black literary circles that are as total and as destructive as any imposed by racism.
I'm more careful about my hands than about what I eat and most anything else, because my hands have been my living. My hands have been able to help me learn. My hands have taken me around the world. So I'm very proud of my hands.
Creativity: Take the obvious, add a cupful of brains, a generous pinch of imagination, a bucketful of courage and daring, stir well and bring to a boil.
Two types of films: those that employ the resources of the theater (actors, direction, etc...) and use the camera in order to reproduce; those that employ the resources of cinematography and use the camera to create
I try to tell the best story, and the story that has some heart and some genuine terror and some social commentary and some comedy and some romance and some sex and some violence.
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